Re: Tentative Ebisedian number system

On 3 Jul 02, at 13:43, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> I just had an idea for the upcoming Ebisedian number system. Instead of
> saying "<number> of <noun>", such as "three cows" or "four horses", where
> the number word modifies the noun, Ebisedian will have the *noun* modify
> the *number*.
>
> E.g., to talk about three children, you'd talk about a "child-three"
> (child being adjectival). To talk about five dogs, you'd refer to a
> "canine-five". The idea being that the number manifests itself in
> different shapes and forms, rather than vice versa. So you'd talk about a
> monetary-thousand rather than a thousand units of currency, a floral-ten
> rather than ten flowers, and reddish-nine instead of nine (types of) reds.
>
> What do people think of this idea? Good? Bad? Crazy? Stupid? :-)
No sillier than using nouns for numbers, I'd say. ("The eggs in the
basket threed" = "There were three eggs in the basket".)

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>